The conclusion of Week 18 in the Razzball Elite league has Kap’s Team still in the lead, gaining a few games on second place. Making it a runaway! I finally got a deal done to shore up my long-term hopes, which is why dynasties are good for the optimist in everyone. “I may lose this year, but I’m just making myself better for the next!” Man, I feel like Matthew McConaughey’s Oscar speech now… Reactions from owners below as we gear up for the final two weeks:

1. Kap’s Team (109-50-3)

FAAB Remaining: $80 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

2. The Nature Boy(106-53-3)

FAAB Remaining: $70 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

3. Like A Josh – IFBL(104-56-2)

FAAB Remaining: $61 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

4. Barking BassetHounds(103-55-4)

FAAB Remaining: $17 FAAB Moves this week: Henry Sims ($3)

5. Cigar Smoking Monkey(99-63-0)

FAAB Remaining: $2 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

6. Slim – Razzball(95-63-4)

FAAB Remaining: $1 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

Only 2 weeks remaining in the regular season and the battle for the playoffs has really intensified. The 5th place team had a tough loss to the 2nd place team and is only 2 games up on the 6th/7th place tie. I’m one of the tied teams and the 8th place team is only 1 game back from us. So now it’s 4 teams fighting for the last 2 playoff spots. The 5th place team has 2 easy weeks left and shouldn’t have a problem making the playoffs. The 8th place team has the toughest schedule and me and the team I’m tied with play one more tough match. His is this week and mine is next. I think my odds of making it aren’t too bad so I made what should be my last trade of the year.

I traded away Sanders, Cory Joseph, and Carroll. An overpriced injured non-keeper, a $1 potential keeper who is getting squeezed for minutes with the Spurs fully healthy, and a $4 keeper who although isn’t a youngster should maintain his current role for the forseeable future. It may not look like I’m giving a whole lot but cheap keepers have become the most valuable commodities in this league. I’m getting back Felton, Bayless, and James Anderson. Obviously Felton is terrible and won’t be a keeper but I’m in desperate need of his assists. Bayless is playing well with 30+ minutes regularly and played like a top 100 player last week. James Anderson isn’t very good but he’s still getting about 30 minutes and posting around top 125 value over the last month. I’m sure of 2 things: That I’m much better for the last week of the regular season and that I’m going to regret trading away DeMarre Carroll. All that’s left for me now is to sit back and watch it play out. I feel like I’ve done everything I could to make the playoffs without selling any of my core players, I even managed to add a core player in Tobias Harris in the process and I still have RKelly, Marcus Morris, and Amir Johnson as potential keepers. This week I’ll be rooting for Team Tough Guy Town, The Nature Boy, and JB Gilpin – Razzball. Come on fellas, I need your help!

Well, looking for a top 10 finish, check, finishing over .500, check, and making a trade for a few more keepers next year, check. All-in-all, about the best week I’ve had in this forsaken league. Slim hit the nail on the head in his analysis of our trade: Cheap keepers are going to be golden commodities. With a league this deep, with so many knowledgable players, rookies are going to fly off the shelves in next year’s draft. So I was desperate to get a couple cheapies now as I’ll have a good amount of spots to fill with not much money to fill it. Man that sounded dirty! Giving up 3 non-keepers in Felton, Bayless and Anderson (well, Anderson at $8 was on the fence, he’s young, but the Sixers will probably retool) was an easy unload. The big haul was DeMarre Carroll at $4, who is flourishing with the Hawks and they should keep pumping him minutes next year. Cory Joseph is another guy attractive for his price, who at $1 will be an easy hold going into next year to see what happens. Slim helped convince me on him for the future when he acquired him, but with Slim looking pretty good for the playoffs, Joseph was a little more expendable to him and exciting for me. I did really like that San Antonio dumped Nando De Colo, so I think they’re sold on Joseph being a possible PG of the future with more development time coming his way behind Tony Parker. Then I’m definitely throwing Larry Sanders back in next year’s draft, but can hold onto him through the season with ease so he won’t become a $1 contract. Another benefit of the trade with Slim. I think we both helped each other out a ton, and now it’s cruise with my guys for next year, and sit back and enjoy adding two keepers that’ll cost me 5 buckaroos.

11. Hoopus Alleyoopus(81-77-4)

FAAB Remaining: $50 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

12. Doug – tdbsports.com(72-89-1)

FAAB Remaining: $58 FAAB Moves this week: Ben Gordon ($20)

13. Pete Nice – Razzball (69-90-3)

FAAB Remaining: $9 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

14. Ben – RotoGold(67-92-3)

FAAB Remaining: $98 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

15. I’m a Currian(65-93-4)

FAAB Remaining: $7 FAAB Moves this week: Ish Smith ($1)

16. Mr Green – Nowhere(60-100-2)

FAAB Remaining: $23 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

Another week, another 6-3 loss to a playoff caliber team. My hopes of pulling off an upset over one of the 3 “on the bubble” teams are dwindling. Or are they? My last chance comes this week against the currently hanging on to the last playoff spot by a thread Slim.

I don’t want to scare you Slim, but Razzball is 0-2 against me so far this season in the ole REL. Back to back 6-3 beat-downs were put on Pete and JB by yours truly not so long ago. The holy trinity is about to be unleashed upon Razzball this week. Prepare yourself! Dare I say your chances of winning are…..Slim?

17. Nashed Potatoes(53-108-1)

FAAB Remaining: $91 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

18. ChazTop-KevinBottom(51-110-1)

FAAB Remaining: $73 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

19. Team Tough Guy Town (50-110-2)

FAAB Remaining: $89 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

20. Kinsey’s Team(48-111-3)

FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a

If you have any dynasty league questions as we near the fantasy playoffs, shoot below!

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@Mr Green – Hehe… Fortunately for me I don’t have to deal with Harden or Duncan like they did. By my calculations if I win 6-3 that’s about as good as a loss. Like how your 3-6 loss last week got me back into a tie. For my purposes I considered that a win. If he beat you 7-2 or 8-1 then I wasn’t going to make my final trade with JB and I was going to concede. If he misses the playoffs by that 1 game then you can rightfully say that you knocked him out of the playoffs… more or less.

@Slim: Keep in mind Harden wasn’t doing much (relative to his normal elite ways) more for me at the time than DeRozan is now. Sure he obviously gave me more 3s and steals, but he also gave me twice as many turnovers, which goes against my teams biggest strength, lol.

Duncan vs Porter/Nicholson on the other hand, that is a bit of a drop off as far as this season is concerned. Although, perhaps Porter was just waiting to get his revenge against you since he did play 10 minutes yesterday, which is a season high since he’s been on my team I think.

At this point in the season for me, as 6-3 loss is the baseline I’m going for. If I get it I’m not disappointed or thrilled. Anything better, even if it’s a 5-4 loss and I’ve gotta be pretty happy about it.

I’m just happy that I’ve got some involvement in the outcome of this league at this point in the season considering how disappointing my team has been this year.

@A Hill O’ Beans: Yeah DeRozan is playing relatively well still. The threes are easy to make up for but steals are something I’ve been trying to improve on all year and it’s been really difficult. This week for me is all about the 2 percents. If I can take 1 of 2 I should be alright going into next week. Maybe… I’ve been pretty pessimistic about my chances all year.

For the record I’m SHOCKED no one added McCallum or Reggie Evans. I only have $1 and I need to save that in case I have an injury or something so I couldn’t but all the top teams could definitely use Reggie and I think all the bottom teams should be taking the flyer on McCallum. Even Muscala has some nice upside. Maybe this isn’t the place to be talking about this…

Otto Porters 2 3s yesterday were a nice touch. Feels like forever ago when he was on my team.

Still working on your last trade? Deadline is Thursday. I’m sure you have enough to get one or two more keepers. I know where I would look to make the trade if I were you, and I don’t mean me.

@Slim: I considered McCallum and in retrospect maybe I’m a little lower on him than I should be, especially since it looks like he’ll get a shot.

I am still trying to make another trade, and I know where I’d like to make one. I actually sent out offers to all potential playoff teams (except yours since I think your pretty much done dealing). Getting a counter offer has been…. difficult up to this point though, so I’m not sure anything will happen. I’m curious who you think Id make a good match with though.

@Yokev_o: I think I might lose Middleton for him, even though i agree with Slim. Hill was on a stretch of 5+ assists for a while until the past 4, and think he can rekindle that while Middleton isnt playing big enough minutes on a terrible team for fantasy consistency

I guess I would get the Oscar joke if I had actually heard his speech… Not to say he didnt deserve it but I was rooting for Bruce Dern. ‘Her’ won original screenplay so at least someone I was rooting for won. I was talking wth a few people about which I would actually watch again and I decided on, Her, Nebraska, and Blue Jasmine. Maybe I’m just more Indie than mainstream but those were the ones I enjoyed the most.

@Slim: Haha yeah I think so… I figured both Dallas Buyers Club dudes were winning. I’m so slow on movies, usually get em after theater run, did like Gravity a lot though, glad it picked up a good amount

I was wondering if you would drop Alexis Ajinca for Byron Mullens. He looks like he could have some potential on that team due to a similar style as Spencer hawes. What do you think . I am in 9 cat roto 3 rd place two points behind 2 nd place
mike conley / ty lawson / trey burke
demar derozan / tyreke evans / gordon hayward / tobias harris
kenneth faried / terence jones / Zach Randolph / Alexis Ajinca
Andrew Bogut / All Jefferson / Derrick Favors

@Michael: Yup I would! Finally a big game from mullens who I held onto in a couple leagues and felt like a moron until tonight. Seems like a few out of position treys will help ya. Evans is going absolutely bonkers! After the trade of Turner to Indy I woulda taken Evans over him right then, but never woulda thought it’d be this much apart.